Swan Queen Week: Thursday: Premise Only
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: In the latter half of the Season 2 Episode "Second Star To The Right", Regina was tortured by Greg and Tamara, and then 'conveniently' restored by the Blue Fairy's magic. I call bullshit. Emma takes care of Regina while 'everyone else' goes out to try and find the bad guys and stop them before they can figure out how to trigger the Black Diamond.


Title: Swan Queen Week: Thursday: Care-Giving

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: ABC and Disney own Once Upon A Time and all associated characters. This story is in response to the challenge put forth by and for "Swan Queen Week" (), specifically the third bi-annual event, "Tropes & Cliches". Story contains descriptions and allusions to an 'Adult' relationship between two women. If this offends you, you always have the right to exercise your free will, and not read it.

Rated: M (for themes, content, and language)

Summary: In the latter half of the Season 2 Episode "Second Star To The Right", Regina was tortured by Greg and Tamara, and then 'conveniently' restored by the Blue Fairy's magic. I call bullshit. Emma takes care of Regina while 'everyone else' goes out to try and find the bad guys and stop them before they can figure out how to trigger the Black Diamond.

I'll Take Care Of You:

"I'll take care of her, you guys go on."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go, find the ones that did this and stop them. We'll be OK."

"All right Emma. We love you."

"I love you guys too. Now go. I got this."

"..."

"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

"Nope."

"Perfect."

SQW

They had rescued the Evil Queen.

There was still some debate as to whether that was a good thing or not. Emma was one of the few that put it in the solid 'good' column. Things had gotten crazy there for a while, and it still wasn't over. Brief recap; Back when Storybrooke first arrived in this world, a father and son were witness to its arrival. Regina… er, 'befriended' the pair, still very much the Evil Queen in her mind and behavior, so when she began to realize how lonely and bored she'd made things with her Curse, she sought out the companionship of the only two in town that were not in the least way predictable. When they fought to escape, the father gave up his freedom and ultimately his life so his son could escape. That little boy had come back to Storybrooke, with Neal's "fiance" (longer story), and the pair of normal humans from Earth were seeking the means to destroy magic once and for all. In the process of their machinations, they had captured Regina and Owen, the little boy all grown up, took the opportunity to torture the woman that had taken his father away from him. Amidst just some of the confusing things going on, in effort to save the woman that had cursed them and betrayed them more times than any could count, Snow White used one of Regina's tears to gain the vital clue to finding out where she was being held captive. Emma and Neal had then gone to rescue her, where Neal was faced with the truth of his fiance's true nature. She didn't take the dissolution of their engagement too well, using a magic bean to open a portal and then shooting Neal, forcing Emma to watch as he fell through, severely injured and probably never to be seen again. As far as the Savior was concerned, she'd just watched the man she loved die before her eyes.

She wasn't about to lose anyone else.

Unfortunately, what she was really good at, and what she really, _really_ wanted to do, nobody was about to let her do that. Which was hunt down Tamara and Owen and bring them to justice. Whether it was that she'd just witness Neal 'die', or her rather poor attempts at veiling her bloodthirsty desire for revenge, or perhaps it was just none of them trusting her, she couldn't be sure. Either way, whatever their reasoning, she saw it in their faces while they were discussing what to do next. She was on the sidelines.

Good news is she had familiar company.

The Blue Fairy had come and tried to do some magic, but whatever it was that those two had done to her, Regina was out of commission. At least for the next little while. And, seeing that she was sidelined, Emma decided to take it upon herself to take care of her once-rival. That the former Evil Queen (not quite yet reformed) was currently unconscious and could not deny or refuse her generous offer of aid and support had absolutely nothing to do with it of course. It just made the actual discussion part of the decision shorter and less violent than it could have been.

So, with a bit of help from Henry-who agreed with her by the way-she took Regina back to her mansion home and got her settled into her own bed in her own bedroom and in her very own pajamas. Emma had to take care of that part alone. And amazingly the deposed Mayor stayed unconscious through it all. Forcing Emma to wonder about that 'magic' the Blue Fairy had actually cast on Regina.

They didn't even consider taking her to the hospital. Well, Emma didn't, and when she explained her reasons why, most everyone agreed with her. Despite hospitals supposed to being places of healing and safety, Storybrooke's hospital had a bit of… bad karma associated with it. For starters, for over twenty years, every 'patient' there, was trapped and forever 'injured', or at the very least kept there, prisoners of the magic of the curse. It was also where Henry almost died, where Doctor Whale, aka Frankenstein, resurrected Daniel's soulless corpse, and it was also where Owen had spent most of his time in Storybrooke. Making it his home territory in other words. Whereas, that anyone knew, he'd never so much as set foot inside the Mayor's mansion home, at least not since he was a little boy.

Besides, who takes an injured and weakened torture victim to their home to recuperate?

Rhetorical question.

Once they were locked away safely, everyone else turned their full attention toward hunting down the outsiders and stopping them and their plans once and for all.

Snow, David, Red and the Dwarves were on tracking them down. The rest of the 'council', IE all of Snow White's loyal friends and the like, focused on keeping the peace, and figuring out what to do once they had them. Everyone else just went about their business, but were nervous and scared enough that they kept their heads down and offered-and provided-whatever help they could.

But that wasn't Emma's concern.

No, her primary concern was making sure that Regina didn't kill herself while trying to kill Emma when she inevitably woke up…

(AN: You know what, I just didn't have the time for this one. Maybe, someday, eventually and all that, but it takes more than a *month's* notice to write something on the level of SgtMac's "Safe"! Let alone a 5000 word short! And there are six OTHER challenges to answer at the same time! Not even counting the bonus 8th Day of 'Creator's Choice'! So, I made the coverart, I came up with the concept, I wrote the premise. That's all I got time for. Because let's face it, there are a few other challenges this week that are a LOT more interesting than detailing a 'recovery period'. Especially Saturday's. :)


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